Minnesota Litigator
News & Commentary
Do not consider the blog to be a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney licensed in your state.
First Judicial District Judge Blakely Suspended: Six Months, No Pay, No Legal Practice…
The Minnesota Supreme Court has issued a 22-page opinion: censure and suspension from judicial duties for 6 months without pay is warranted for First District Judge Timothy Blakely who violated Canons of Judicial Conduct by negotiating and obtaining a substantial legal fee reduction from his personal attorney (whom he owed nearly $100,000) at the same […]
Non-Signatory STILL Cannot Enforce Arbitration Clause
This case, arising in the context of truck and truck part manufacturing, was covered on this blog in July. The case was covered before that, back in March. The Eighth Circuit granted a petition for rehearing, vacated the previous opinion, substituted today’s opinion, and Plaintiff-Appellee Donaldson Co. still loses. (The Eighth Circuit’s July opinion included analysis […]
Minnesota: A Nice Place to Visit, But I Wouldn’t Want to Be Sued There…
An out-of-state company hires employees from a Minnesota company (C.H. Robinson), with whom the employees had signed non-disclosure agreements and non-competition agreements. Those agreements also included a forum selection clause providing that litigation brought to enforce the terms of the agreements would be brought in court in Minnesota (state or federal). (Other defendants/former C.H. Robinson […]
Environmental Litigation: St. Croix River Bridge
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis heard argument today on cross-motions for summary judgment in a case brought by Sierra Club Northstar Chapter in regard to a bridge over the St. Croix River. Cross motions for summary judgment had been pending since late May. The Sierra Club, represented by the Environmental Law & Policy Center, […]
Lawyers, Blogs, First Amendment, Codes of Professional Responsibility
The New York Times, today, covers lawyers getting into hot water by virtue of their “on-line” personae vs. their professional rules and responsibilities (link here). This is just one aspect of the new dimension in modern life — social media — aspects of which have already been covered here.
Civil Litigation Never Goes to Trial? Ask the Patent Litigators…
There have been two recent rulings on local patent infringement trials, past and, by all indications, imminent, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Move over, United States District Court, E.D. Texas (Marshall Division), once thought of as “ground zero” for U.S. patent infringement litigation? (Don’t bet on it.) Even if the […]
Eighth Circuit Weighs in On NFL Case & Affirms
The United States Court of Appeals ruled today in the Williams case, discussed here previously. The lower court’s ruling has been affirmed “in all respects.”
Rosenbaum Rebuke Garners National Attention
Judge James M. Rosenbaum is known to occasionally wield the pen as a sword (or, in Minnesotan spirit and consistent with his metaphor of attorneys as remoras, as a fish gutting knife?). Judge Rosenbaum’s recent response to a request for attorneys’ fees in the UHG class action litigation cut deeply. He denied the request for […]
Luckily, No Dice…
With this brief entry, the Minnesota Litigator slips across the statelines and into a development in South Dakota criminal law… This past week the South Dakota Supreme Court held that evidence had to be suppressed (evidence, it seems, of some 10 lbs. of marijuana) because the South Dakota police officer released his drug-sniffing dog on […]
Who’s Your Patty???
I have never felt the need to name my meat before eating it; I don’t know anyone, in fact, who makes a habit of it, but, for some reason, McDonald’s new ad campaign seems to hint at this strange act. McDonald’s odd, “Who’s your patty?” ad campaign apparently derives from “Who’s your daddy?” (or an […]